I took mine out for it's maiden voyage after 15 years of non-use. All I did was add some air, adjust the handlebars forward, and tweak the shifter a bit. She rode well. Not as nice as my 2005 Dahon Jetstream P8, but incredibly well for an untuned 37 year old folder. I haven't cleaned her a bit, but in this photo, it looks so much cleaner that it is. This is our new statue to Savannah's favorite son, Johnny Mercer, with the soon to be opening newly reclaimed Ellis Square. An old 1950s parking deck was here. Now there is a 5 story parking garage underneath the square.

What is the high speed stability of these things like? Bloke at work has a Dahon, reckons it gets real sketchy above 36-38km/h so he makes sure he never exceeds 35. Is he just soft like butter, or is there merit to his claims?

ve safari wrote:What is the high speed stability of these things like? Bloke at work has a Dahon, reckons it gets real sketchy above 36-38km/h so he makes sure he never exceeds 35. Is he just soft like butter, or is there merit to his claims?

ve safari,

Not all small-wheel and folding bicycles are made equal. The Raleigh Twenty has been noted as being a particularly stable bicycle, which handles like a Raleigh Sports when you're riding. It's a bit difficult getting more than 30-35kph on them because the typical top gear is only about 82 gear inches. There are lots of factors with folding/small-wheel bicycles which affect their handling at speed, such as the choice of 16" or 20" wheels, fork offset, frame stiffness, etc. A lot of modern folding bicycles are intended for short trips down to the shops or the train station.

If you want, when I repair my cursed rear wheel I'll bring it with me to the next gathering at Sydney Olympic park and you can have a try of it.

ve safari wrote:What is the high speed stability of these things like? Bloke at work has a Dahon, reckons it gets real sketchy above 36-38km/h so he makes sure he never exceeds 35. Is he just soft like butter, or is there merit to his claims?

ve safari, I agree with what hartleymartin said, however in regards to Dahons, it depends what model. The base models and old Classics are for short runabouts, but many of the higher end models that they currrently have can pretty much hold their own with most road bikes.

Below is a photo of my main ride - 2005 Dahon Jetstream P8 folder with full suspension 8 speed and hydraulic brakes. I would love to put a pair of Schwalbe Big Apples on my Raleigh Twenty.

Thanks for the offer HM. Old mate's Dahon looks like yours kingfish, except that it's not a folding one. It has chainrings and gears, suspension, and cost him a pretty penny. We were riding home together one day, approached a descent where it's easy to hit 50-55km/h on my bike, when I realised that old mate was way behind. When I queried what happened, he told me about the stability issue. To be honest I thought it was it BS at the time - it's obviously a quality bike. I appreciate the smaller wheels will have less of a gyroscopic stabilising effect, but surely it's capable of safely going 40km/h and faster?

ve safari wrote:Thanks for the offer HM. Old mate's Dahon looks like yours kingfish, except that it's not a folding one. It has chainrings and gears, suspension, and cost him a pretty penny. We were riding home together one day, approached a descent where it's easy to hit 50-55km/h on my bike, when I realised that old mate was way behind. When I queried what happened, he told me about the stability issue. To be honest I thought it was it BS at the time - it's obviously a quality bike. I appreciate the smaller wheels will have less of a gyroscopic stabilising effect, but surely it's capable of safely going 40km/h and faster?

The Early Moulton F-frame bicycles were used in racing and they have only 16" wheels.

Wow - they've got some pictures which show the sort of thing I want to do with my folding twenty (my project bike) for touring/commuting:

Oh, and whilst I'm at it, a few people have used a stock twenty in some novelty/fun races:

hartleymartin wrote:Wow - they've got some pictures which show the sort of thing I want to do with my folding twenty (my project bike) for touring/commuting:

Those bikes look sooo unstable in the load packing department ! My mate Mike has a much better approach to touring with his Moulton. He did have to get the rear rack specially made up (I think by Peter Moore) to be able to carry panniers with strength.

hartleymartin wrote:

What is going on with this picture? Is the rider track standing or does the mechanic have lightning-quick reactions to do an adjustment on the fly?

Just doesn't seem to make sense

Riding bikes in traffic - what seems dangerous is usually safe; what seems safe is often more dangerous.

hartleymartin wrote:Wow - they've got some pictures which show the sort of thing I want to do with my folding twenty (my project bike) for touring/commuting:

Those bikes look sooo unstable in the load packing department ! My mate Mike has a much better approach to touring with his Moulton. He did have to get the rear rack specially made up (I think by Peter Moore) to be able to carry panniers with strength.

I've carries things which have made me wonder how strong leather straps really are in my 24L Saddle bag, which have made people look twice to see what was going on and not notice any great stability issues. Also, the way some people pile stuff high on the back of full-sized bicycles makes you wonder if some people have done their homework:

This is Tim and Cindy Travis who've been on the road for nearly 8 years now! Admittedly this is what they looked like when the first started, and they don't carry gear like that any more.

fairly new to the forums having just started cycling again on my new flat-bar roadie and i came across Martin's blog in his sig. There I saw his Raleigh Twenty bike that he had got going again. That bike looks very familiar I thought and I went to the backyard to check out the bike my mum grabbed off the side of the road a while ago.

Here's a pic as it is now (how we found it)

It's another Twenty and having seen some of these others online, i took a closer look at it for the first time. Mechanically it's in a working condition and I've decided to take it on as a part-time project. Hopefully, I can bring it back to it's former glory or just spruce it up a bit.

Missing the mudguards and chainguard (quite common with old twenty's). But it appears to have the old 451mm (20" x 1-3/8") wheels, which is unusual as I had believed that folding models were sold with 406mm (20" x 1.75") wheels (same as BMX). Would you mind checking out the serial number (back of seat-tube or on the left-side rear dropout) and any markings on the rims and tyres?

hartleymartin wrote:Missing the mudguards and chainguard (quite common with old twenty's). But it appears to have the old 451mm (20" x 1-3/8") wheels, which is unusual as I had believed that folding models were sold with 406mm (20" x 1.75") wheels (same as BMX). Would you mind checking out the serial number (back of seat-tube or on the left-side rear dropout) and any markings on the rims and tyres?

Yeah it does have the 451mm (20" x 1-3/8") wheels (although I have no idea how you could tell that!).

I wasn't actually aware that there were differences in 20" wheels and I thought I'd get it going by putting on a spare bmx tyre I had laying around. I quickly discovered that wasn't going to happen which is a shame because I want to take it for a ride around the block. Remarkably, the front tyre and tube are ok and even stayed up overnight but the back sidewall blew out straight away.

Will I have any trouble sourcing 451mm (20" x 1-3/8") tyres/tubes?

Serial no. is ND7241356 which indicates feb '77 (among other things) if i'm not mistaken.

fairly new to the forums having just started cycling again on my new flat-bar roadie and i came across Martin's blog in his sig. There I saw his Raleigh Twenty bike that he had got going again. That bike looks very familiar I thought and I went to the backyard to check out the bike my mum grabbed off the side of the road a while ago.

Here's a pic as it is now (how we found it)

It's another Twenty and having seen some of these others online, i took a closer look at it for the first time. Mechanically it's in a working condition and I've decided to take it on as a part-time project. Hopefully, I can bring it back to it's former glory or just spruce it up a bit.

I just picked up this one's twin. SN ND7241387. Original condition with 3 spd SA Dynohub. Mine has all the guards as well as the white plastic carrier. 25 bucks. Looks a little out of place alongside the Cervelo P3C and R3-SL but it will grow on me.

fairly new to the forums having just started cycling again on my new flat-bar roadie and i came across Martin's blog in his sig. There I saw his Raleigh Twenty bike that he had got going again. That bike looks very familiar I thought and I went to the backyard to check out the bike my mum grabbed off the side of the road a while ago.

Here's a pic as it is now (how we found it)

It's another Twenty and having seen some of these others online, i took a closer look at it for the first time. Mechanically it's in a working condition and I've decided to take it on as a part-time project. Hopefully, I can bring it back to it's former glory or just spruce it up a bit.

I just picked up this one's twin. SN ND7241387. Original condition with 3 spd SA Dynohub. Mine has all the guards as well as the white plastic carrier. 25 bucks. Looks a little out of place alongside the Cervelo P3C and R3-SL but it will grow on me.

Nice catch. I have a 1948 Rudge Whitforth with a SA dynohub and I am having a hell of a time finding a SA light that will fit the light bracket for a decent price in the US.

hartleymartin wrote:Well, I've staved off the cartridge road for the time being. I managed to get the bottom bracket open, to discover that the main reason things were not running so well was because there was so much crud in there! A thorough clean-out and a re-pack with fresh grease has a decently smooth-running bottom bracket. Water has evidently gotten in before. I put lots of nice new grease on the bearing cups, rubbed a layer of it around the inside of the bottom bracket, and a layer of it around the entire spindle to help prevent rusting. I hope to get a few years use out of the original bottom bracket bits for the time being.

Did you have any troubles with the cottered cranks? I'm kinda scared of stuffing them up.